Pat Cummins’ high auction price of INR 15.5 crore (about $ 2.2 million) was much discussed after the bowler had been expensive in the Kolkata Knight Riders opener against the Mumbai Indians. Cummins had hit 49 runs in three no-ground overs in that game, his worst economy rate in a T20 game. However, KKR captain Dinesh Karthik backed the No. 1-ranked test bowler to come out well, calling it unfair to judge him for a single bad start. Cummins restored that confidence by returning the cheapest figures from the game against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats considers Cummins’ efforts of 1 of 19 of four overs to be the most shocking performance of the match ahead of Shubman Gill, who was officially named Man of the Match.
Cummins’s spell brought him 75 hit points, 10 more than Gill got on his 70 of 62 balls in what was ultimately a comfortable chase for the Knight Riders. ESPNcricinfo Smart Stats goes beyond conventional numbers to look at the context in which a player is performing. Cummins threw three powerplay overs to one of the best starting pairs in this IPL – Jonny Bairstow and David Warner – and one more in death. In addition to firing Bairstow, Cummins kept the starting pair quiet, conceding just 11 runs in the power play. At the other extreme, the other three powerplay overs were for 29 races.
Cummins came back to pitch the 17th in the inning and gave up just eight runs to two set hitters, Manish Pandey and Wriddhiman Saha, who were looking to speed up. Given the context of overs thrown and hitters thrown, and the fact that he only managed 4.75 runs in a game with an average economy rate of 7.7, the 19 runs conceded by Cummins were equivalent to just 9.4 smart runs.
Smart Stats recognize that Gill’s inputs are important to KKR, which is why they attribute the second highest impact score in the match to his team. But, given the pressure under which Cummins returned those excellent numbers and also took the important Bairstow ground, he is the most impactful player of the Smart Stats game.
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